At Dubai International Airport, ivory smuggling leads to prosecution

For the second year in a row in Dubai International Airport -The 1st busiest international Airport in the world – IFAW is conducting the “Ivory smuggling leads to prosecution” campaign, aiming to reduce the demand on ivory worldwide.

The campaign was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Water in UAE, Dubai Police, and Dubai International Airport. This public service display is being displayed in three languages; English Arabic and Chinese on the airport screens for 20 days.

A stand is set up to display samples of confiscated ivory to educate passengers about the importance of the wildlife and the threats facing elephants. We are also surveying participants to measure the impact of the campaign.

Although, the levels in 2013 are less than what they were in 2012 and 2011, poaching is still considered a major threat to the elephants, particularly now that levels are higher than the natural elephant population growth rate.

As we continue our campaign work, we hope to reverse this trend in part by informing airport visitors that if they try to bring illegal ivory through customs, they will be prosecuted.